Year: 1915
Director: Charles Chaplin
Country: US
Language: N/A
Born October 21st, 1895 Edna Purviance was an American actress during the pre-Golden Hollywood silent era of film. Her pre-acting days involved going to business school from 1913-1914 and working as a stenographer. In October of 1915 she received a message from Essanay Studios. Chaplin, who had received a considerable sum of money and power from the studio, was making his second picture for them when he realized he needed a leading lady. He had spent months finding the perfect girl but no luck, that is until he saw Edna and fell in love with her.
In this, Charlie finds a "good luck" horseshoe just as he passes a training camp advertising for a boxing partner "who can take a beating." After watching others lose, Charlie puts the horseshoe in his glove and wins. The trainer prepares Charlie to fight the world champion. A gambler wants Charlie to throw the fight. He and the trainer's daughter fall in love.
The Champion was Edna's second of over 30 pictures she co-starred in along with Chaplin. Her first film was His Night Out (1915) and her last was A Woman in Paris (1923). She would continue to receive a cheque from the studio until her death in 1958. In this film she plays her role as Chaplin's interest rather well, one can understand why somebody would get their lights knocked out for her. She seems very humble and sweet, in addition to being intelligent and strong-willed.
The real hit of this film is the boxing sequence, which inspired Chaplin to do a similar scene in his post-silent silent City Lights (1931). Watching Chaplin train in his trademark bowler hat is brilliant and the big fight itself is hilarious and extremely well choreographed. This is far from your typical Rocky fight as we see the competitors constantly falling over, hitting the referee, embracing each other for support and clumsily cross-cutting his opponent.
It's a damn fine film, and although I think City Lights has more outrageous choreography, I can't help but be impressed and entertained by The Champion. Showing more competence in his staging and arrangements, I feel this is another film that shows Chaplin slowly becoming a master of his craft. He isn't quite there yet, but we can certainly see his potential.
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